Costello shows musical direction with 'North'

Whether out of boredom or \ncreative restlessness, Elvis Costello has spent the last decade reinventing himself. \nEvery year or two he's popped up wearing a new mask, playing the part of an R&B crooner ("Kojak Variety"), a classical composer (The Juliet Letters) or a lounge stylist (Painted From Memory). The resulting albums, though often charming, were tainted with an air of musical self-consciousness as Costello attempted to squeeze himself into somewhat ill-fitting suits.\nHis new album North is yet another genre experiment: 11 pop-jazz ballads in the Nat King Cole vein. Far from being cerebral exercises, however, the songs of heartbreak and newfound love are deeply personal and spring from his divorce and subsequent engagement to jazz diva Diana Krall. \nCostello exposes himself musically as well, his voice always at the fore, often supported only by brushes drifting across cymbals and the soft rippling of a piano. Meanwhile, his lyrics dispense with his customary abstruse metaphors and clever insults, instead expressing simple emotions in a direct manner. Though not likely to move your feet or your pulse, North is an intimate portrait of emotions often neglected by popular music: wistful regret and hesitant, shy romance.